Academic and Business Writing
- Free to audit
- Paid certificate
- Beginner
- 6 weeks
Academic and Business Writing is a six-week BerkeleyX course led by Maggie Sokolik, Director of College Writing Programs at UC Berkeley, written for English language learners who need to produce formal prose. The course page describes a focus on grammar, vocabulary, structure, editing and publication, and its learning goals cover persuasive writing techniques and essay development, proofreading, self-editing, revision, tone and vocabulary, and stronger English writing and communication overall. edX marks it introductory and self-paced at three to five hours a week, with no prerequisites listed. The audit track is free and gives you the course material for the course's estimated length in weeks, counted from enrolment; graded work and the certificate are not included.
A verified certificate is available for $199. The course is taught in English with English transcripts. It pairs naturally with the same instructor's shorter How to Write an Essay, which covers sentence and paragraph basics first.
What you’ll learn
- Build persuasive essays with a clear structure and a well-developed argument
- Proofread, self-edit and revise your drafts for tone, vocabulary and accuracy
- Choose grammar and vocabulary suited to formal academic and business contexts
- Write with greater confidence in English for university and workplace settings
Who it’s for
English language learners who need to write essays, reports or business documents and want structured practice in editing their own work.
Instructor
- Maggie Sokolik Director, College Writing Programs
Course details
- Skills covered
- Diction
- Learning Platforms
- Business Writing
- Editing
- Marketing
- English Language
- Program Management
- Vocabulary Development
- Vocabulary
- Grammar
- Writing
On edx.org
Rated 4.5 out of 5 by 21 learners; 356,085 enrolled, as shown on the course page on 20 Oct 2026. These are edx.org’s own figures, not ours.
Source: BerkeleyX (opens in a new tab) · Verified · Report a change
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